If I'm going to talk about the tactical intricacies of 40K, then I need to go over some basic principles the way I see them. If you're a player that is just now returning to the game, then you'll almost be learning a brand new game, and hopefully I can help you relearn the tactics. If you're a veteran of 5th Edition, then I hope my perspective can give you new insight.
When talking about the game, we need to look at the three distinct, equally important phases of the game. This is a very complicated game, but by isolating each phase, we better understand how Movement, Shooting, and Assault effect each other and how the game works as a whole.
I will go over each phase in general starting with Movement. These are the principles I have come to play with in every game.
The turn begins with a critical phase, Movement. Although you will rarely kill anything in this phase (but it does happen), Movement sets you up to knock your opponent down. In 5th Edition, Movement is critical. Most of your games will involve objectives you need to capture that are placed outside your deployment zone. You will also need to maneuver to eliminate targets, so you will need enough mobility to reach them. When moving about your units, keep in mind three things listed in order of priority:
1) Find your Killzone
2) Reach your Killzone
3) Avoid your Opponent's Killzone (if at all possible)
Find your Killzone:
You need to know how you will eliminate your opponent and where you will need to be when you attack. As soon as you know what your opponent is bringing to the fight, you need to prioritize your targets. This is a learned skill that mainly comes with experience and learning how your army matches up against various threats. Say you're facing a Space Marines army. Find out what will hurt you most. Is it his Vindicators with the high strength, low AP, Ordnance templates? Is it the assault from his Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators in the Land Raider? Or is it the ranged anti-tank fire from the Razorbacks with Lascannons? Once you decide what has the best chance to beat your army, decide how you will handle the threat. To help you prioritize the targets, always remember the objective of the game. In an objective based mission, you will usually be eliminating your opponent's units with the best likelihood of eliminating your scoring units. If you don't have any scoring units in an objective-based mission, you basically have no hope of winning. If you're playing a mission that will be decided by Kill Points, you will be focusing on the elements of his army that can destroy multiple units of yours. Sometimes your opponent will have an expensive 'hammer' unit that has the potential to kill unit after unit and soak up a lot of damage in the process--Thunderwolf Calvary, Assault Terminators, Nobz, etc. Other times, you will face multiple targets that are easier to kill but each have the firepower to destroy single units every shooting phase--Razorbacks, Vendettas, Lootas.Your list will dictate your opponent's target priority, so focus on his unit(s) that you expect him to rely on most. Once you determine your opponents critical unit, you can either ignore it, or kill it...but usually you're going to try to kill it.
This post is getting a little long, so I will talk about Reaching your Killzone and Avoiding your Opponent's Killzone (if at all possible) in my next post.
